Zila Killed Ivana, But Her Murder Was Ordered

In an interview for Javno, Hodak spoke about General Zagorec’s sentence for which he claims was orchestrated by the president.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – We spoke with Zvonimir Hodak, the attorney of recently convicted General Vladimir Zagorec, who told us that he did not believe Mladen Slogar aka Zila had planned the murder of his daughter, Ivana Hodak, by himself. Hodak also commented on the General Vladimir Zagorec’s verdict and the entire court process which he believes was orchestrated by people from the Croatian president’s office. 

You have commented the verdict against Vladimir Zagorec several times already. We know what you think, but what exactly did Zagorec tell you after you spoke to him after the verdict was passed?

He said that, as opposed to me, he was a pessimist. He said he knew in what kind of country he was being tried, that he knew the judicial system in this country and that, as opposed to me, who turned out a naïve idealist, who believed that courts make decisions based on facts, evidence and records, that he knew that he would be convicted. That is exactly what he said to me and cynically laughed at me. This means he is politically more educated and wiser than I am. I am obsessed by the law, by form and what was said at the main hearing. I believed that the only verdict the court could pass would be exculpatory. But he said to me, “I never shared your optimism, I know who is processing me and I know who Is behind this and I expected to be convicted”.

Did you contact Zagorec’s family? What was their reaction to the verdict? 

The family was mostly shocked with the fact that two months ago the Austrian press ran a story that there was information from Croatia that Zagorec would get an eight-year sentence and then he gets seven. Which goes to show that this was a process with deep political implications.

During the trial, Zagorec said on several occasions that his proceedings were devised by the state and the mafia. Could you explain that?

We don’t have to bee too clever and too informed, we can be even people who do not follow the daily political developments in Croatia, but we all know about the Pukanic-Petrac axis. We know that when Petrac was arrested and extradited to Croatia for kidnapping Zagorec’s son, President Mesic commented “We will not say anything until the court passes its final verdict, we cannot accuse anybody until the verdict is finalised”. Now he does not even need a finalised verdict for Zagorec. He immediately emerged and spread his feathers like a peacock saying “we will strip him of his medals”. But had president Tudjman been such a good president as Mesic is, that very moment when he learnt that Mesic had secretly testified in The Hague against Croatian generals, he would have stripped him of his medals and of his rank as Major General, which nobody in the world knows how he got.

The relations between Vladimir Zagorec and President Mesic have been tense for a long time and even you are not in good terms with the president. What caused this?

I have absolutely nothing against Mr. Mesic. I consider his mandate of ten years, which is how long he has been president, tabula rasa, as the ancient Romans would say – flat and without anything

concrete. But that is my personal opinion. He is not my president. He is the president of those who elected him. He has never and will never be my president. Vladimir Zagorec did not say anything against Stipe Mesic, while Mesic said everything against Zagorec. He said a mass of petty and cheap implications against him, just because he sent his advisor for national security to Vienna. And in Vienna everything turned out the way it turned out. He was taped, he was de-masked, taped with the consent of the Austrian authorities and in that Mesic had a huge debacle, so he came down hard on General Zagorec. The crown of it all is his not observing Article 28 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, which says that nobody is guilty until the guilt has been asserted by a final court verdict. Mesic does not care for this and he believes Zagorec is already guilty and is thus exerting pressure on the judicial system. This is direct pressure on the Supreme Court. He evidently thinks that this has been so well orchestrated and carried out that the decision of the Supreme Court is just a formality.

Who do you think orchestrated the process? 

I think those who orchestrated the process ate in the presidential office.

On one occasion, as he was stating his defence, Vladimir Zagorec mentioned attorney Ante Nobilo as one of the architects.

Ante Nobilo sounds right. He is Petrac’s attorney. In Greece, he promised him everything would be taken care of. This is evident from Petrac’s letter to Ivo Pukanic – “we are doomed. You turned out irresponsible towards the person you arranged everything with.” Who could Pukanic have arranged anything with except for with the president. And then Ante Nobilo hired Suzana Bunjevac, together with Lazo Pajic, to find compromising documents that would prove that those jewels were indeed in Zagorec’s possession and that he later gave them to Petrac. However, the woman (Suzana Bunjevac) came to a completely different conclusion through her connections, that the jewels never existed. Then she arrived in Zagreb to say that at a news conference, to say that they pleaded with her to falsify her report, but a day before the conference she was arrested and stayed in detention for four months. As soon as she got before a county court judge, the judge released her, gave her back her passport and said “thank you, madam and goodbye”, while she was facing very serious charges. That Nobilo and Lazo Pajic were behind this is a fact that can be seen from her statement which she had notarised and submitted to the court.

During his meeting with Zagorec in Vienna (the president’s advisor) Sasa Perkovic said that the life of Zagorec and of his family was in serious danger if he came back to Croatia. What did he mean by that?

The question is, if the president’s advisor had some knowledge about that, did he notify the police, the state prosecution, anybody? He said nothing to anybody and nobody had the courage to ask him. In every law-based state, he would have to tell a parliamentary commission and police about what he knows who is threatening Vladimir Zagorec’s safety. Evidently these are sacred cows. The untouchable people living up there on that hill and my client believes that everything stemmed from there.

Is Vladimir Zagorec afraid for his life and are you afraid for his safety in case the Supreme Court confirms this ruling and he ends up in Lepoglava prison?

In that case, yes. But today, he is so isolated that there is no fear for his safety. Also, they need him alive. Why? He is living proof that the law-based state is functioning, that the law-based state has begun to clean up after itself. But, on the other hand, the Croatian public believes Zagorec is guilty as much as it believes that Mladen Slogar is an ideologist, that he planned and killed my daughter out of revenge. People simply do not believe that. We’re back in 1945 when it took just two witnesses for public enemies to end up in prison or before a firing squad. It has become more sophisticated now. Today it takes three witnesses.

Let us go back to a more tragic event, the murder of your daughter. Do you believe Mladen Slogar killed Ivana?

I do. I believe he killed her, but there is still doubt whether he did it out of some fictitious revenge,

because I see no reason for that, or whether somebody was behind it. I cannot definitely claim at this moment that he was pointed and instructed what to do, but I believe the murder was ordered by a person or persons. According to all material evidence, he is the killer. Although, I repeat, material evidence means nothing for judge Sinisa Plese. I looked over the file and by the material evidence there I am convinced that he is the murderer, even though he is lying and fibbing about a lot of things. Mind you, I don’t know why because that is completely unnecessary, but that is what gives rise to my doubt that somebody else might be behind it, that the motive is not the one being officially presented to the public.

Speaking about the current, can you tell us what Libero Matekovic told you when he came to your office with incriminating photographs?

He said “make your client pay three million euros and we will turn up in court as witnesses to confirm that he never saw the jewels and that he knows nothing about them”. If not, he said, his brother Ico would turn up in court and testify that Zagorec had given him the jewels to sell them. So, I guess Zagorec looks like some idiot who gives jewels to Petrac and Ico Matekovic, the people who kidnapped his son.

What did you say to Matekovic? 

I didn’t say anything. First I went to see my client, who turned down the offer disgustedly. After that I informed the police and gave them the photographs. They wrote up a report and spoke to me and three of my associates. I also notified the judges in the trial about it as a preventive measure, so Ico Matekovic does not turn up as a witness a couple of days before the verdict. Had I not done that, he probably would have turned up.

How do you comment media reports that the State Prosecution is launching an investigation called “Jewels 2” on the basis of Matekovic’s documents?

Wishful thinking for Nacional. Be certain that nothing will come of it. They are currently satisfied with the seven-year sentence. They wanted Zagorec to get ten years, but they are satisfied. Who would not be satisfied with a seven-year sentence without any evidence whatsoever? This is great success of the State Prosecution and the Croatian justice system. It is an alchemy that gives us all cause to seriously think about our safety.

Let’s go back to President Mesic. Do you think he played a role in the process against Vladimir Zagorec?

I truly do not know what role Mesic had in the proceedings, but he carried out a media lynch. This is evident and I can provide hundreds of examples of that. Is it the job of a country’s president to carry out a lynch against a Croatian general? I have never seen this happen before. Many Croatian generals have been on trials: Norac, Ademi, Gotovina.. But Mesic only came down on Zagorec. Therefore, there is something in the story Zagorec told once when Mesic and Manolic wanted to carry out a coup d’etat against President Tudjman, when Zagorec was the one who informed the late president about it, after which Mesic and Manolic were ousted from the HDZ party. Perhaps that was the genesis?